That's A Heavy Subject
by HetalianTillDeath666
Summary: Ivan Braginsky is living the usual, terrible lie he's always lived. Until a man named Wang Yao turns his whole world upside down through the course of one night. Weight Gain. Cross dressing. Rated M to be safe.
1. Two Steps Backwards

Ivan Braginsky's life is going exactly the way he wants. Migrating out of the harsh, cold and now poor Russian country into an American university. Sure, he and his sisters lived and a rundown neighborhood for a while after they immigrated, but that was never meant to be permanent situation.

Straight out of college, Ivan is offered a major position in an established printing company. He gets everything, his own office, break times, overtime when needed and of course an hour lunch! Not that Ivan would ever say aloud that was his favorite time of the work day. He could just relax, have some vodka that he kept in his desk, and think about how wonderful his life had become compared to his miserable childhood.

There was one thing missing, three things to be exact. His friends from Moscow. The trio he practically grew up with alongside him and his mad sisters. So, Ivan reunited with them thanks to the help of social media. The three decided to live together through some thoughtful persuasion. Ivan chose a simple little apartment building with indoor heat! Ivan to this day loves the old base board heating of his complex, it makes the whole room hot and cozy in such a way that he never experienced in Russia. There's LED lighting, air conditioning (though the man never uses air conditioning, he's always cold), good insulation. Oh, and did Ivan mention there's an elevator too? There is an elevator. It's amazing!

His sisters were doing fine as well, sure they still live in the same old apartment building as they did all those years ago, but at least they have indoor heating too. Big sister says they get by fine, but would like to see Ivan more often than just around Christmas and Easter. Ivan does help out by sending them money here and there, he's not heartless brother. Little sister just scares him too much.

There is only one person in the mix who could ruin Ivan's life...

"Ivan Braginsky, you—you Russian son of a bitch!" Feliks screams out, now storming into the living room of their rather spacious apartment. Following behind the upset Polish boy is the rest of Ivan's house mates and childhood friends.

Toris seems to be the most concerned, next to Eduard. Raivis is always concerned for some reason or another. The pair act like they mean to be there, but the postures and auras tell Ivan they really aren't doing this from their own free will.

"Yes, Feliks? What are you coming to me about now? Hm?" Ivan asks the man, as he concentrates on his latest knitting project, not taking his childlike violet eyes off the moving needles. The Russian has set up his comfortable place on the sofa and is not moving for any reason whatsoever. It is his day off for the week, and the Russian is going to enjoy it.

Feliks is stomping about, seething in anger, messing up his blond hair while a concerned Toris stops the actions all together. Feliks is always upset at Ivan for the silliest things. It's not Ivan's fault that the shoulder-length blond is so eccentric and childish. He should know better than to mess with him. Ivan could snap the boy in half like a twig under his boot.

"Like, me and Liet had a discussion with Eduard and Raivis last night when you were at work and I made this totally awesome plan and no one is following thorough!"

The rather feminine boy pouts, crossing his arms. "It's a perfect plan really, you guys just don't have spines!" Feliks continues. "Remember? We're all gonna tell Ivan how we actually, like, feel about this rooming situation."

"We had nothing to do with this! Honest! Feliks said it would be a good idea and—and—!" Raivis, the short boy with blonde curly, coiled up hair starts spilling the truth out like a faucet.

He's going on and on about this and that, but Eduard, Ivan's only friend with short, dark blond hair and glasses, stop the Latvian from speaking further by a simple utterance of his name. Raivis stops talking and covers his mouth with both of his hands, nearly to the point of tears.

"What Raivis is trying to say is that this is all Feliks's idea and we had nothing to do with it. Right Feliks?" Eduard looks over to Feliks, making a motion with his hands for Feliks to stop the operation. Feliks ignores him, flips his hair back, and continues.

"Come on guys, like we said we'd do this together! No time to back out now! You cowards!" Feliks tries in vain to rally his troops with insults. It doesn't work at all, if anything the Eduard and Raivis back away from the man, waiting for Ivan to give him his...punishment.

"Looks like you cannot even keep a small group of people under you command. How sad!" Ivan says, focusing more on counting his knitting stitches rather than the mutiny of his roommates. The Russian is all smiley and happy as usual. There's no way they're kicking him out of this apartment building.

"Like, shut up already!" Feliks is getting more irritated and it shows in his voice. It's starting to scare Raivis, who is now shaking. "I can rally these dorks together any day!" He says motioning behind him to Toris, Eduard and little Raivis, who is now in quiet tears. Raivis is often stressed to the point of tears because of something or another.

"Did—did you seriously call us all dorks?" Toris says, rather offended by his boyfriend's off the cuff comment. "We're all allies here, Feliks. Besides this was your idea!"

"Not you Liet, like, you don't count sweetheart." Feliks calms down his newest boy toy by putting a hand on his shoulder. It doesn't work as well as Feliks hopes and the brunet Lithuanian simply pushes away his hand.

"Besides, it would work better if you said it!" Feliks says, now forcing his serious boyfriend closer and closer to the Russian. The polish man uses his weight to push Toris towards Ivan. Toris digs his heels in, but Feliks is using too much force and he moves forward a couple of inches to the sofa.

Toris sighs and mutters some obscenities in Lithuanian. The rather serious man takes a hard breath in. Then blows it out slow and controlled.

"Ivan, can we talk about something important?" Toris forces a smile in the direction of his supposed friend. "Man to man, instead of as buddies?"

Ivan looks on to see Toris has moved closer to him. Ivan smiles wide at him as the Russian stabs his knitting needles into his yarn skein, causing fear to rush down Toris's back in the form of tiny goosebumps.

"Of course! Of course! Please sit down." The Russian makes a spot for Toris on the sofa, moving all of his knitting projects to the other side of him. Ivan's gloved hand pats the soft cushion Toris should sit on to discuss things further.

Toris follows through and sits down close to Ivan. He's stiff with a hint of fear in his voice and movements. He begins to play with his fingers, tug at his hair, and make several other gestures. Ivan smiles wide, placing his knitting work from the side of the couch into his basket of other unfinished projects.

"What the problem with the living situation were are currently in?" Ivan asks. "I'm curious."

"I—No, we all want you to—to" Toris tries to explain, messing up his shoulder length hair with one hand. Fear is making him trip up on his words and become all jumpy.

"Well, I mean you don't have to do it right, right now but—!" Toris stops before he can say the words.

"Do what exactly?" Ivan's smile grows in a rather unnerving way, causing Toris to falter even more. Toris can feel the negative energy flow off him in waves. Ivan does not mean it though. He honestly curious.

"Well we were thinking that—if possible—you should well—how should I put this in a nice way…" Toris racks his brain to win over Ivan with the proper wording. The Lithuanian is struggling to spit out any of what him and Feliks just stomps on over.

"Oh. My. God!" Feliks groans aloud, getting into both Ivan's face and Toris's face.

"Liet, the suspense is killing me! Like, spit it out already or I will!"

Ivan and Toris both look at Feliks, then at each other. The man is clicking his tongue in disapproval. "We went over this like a million times, Toris. You can do this."

Ivan looks back to Toris who's gained a bit of confidence from being in the presence of Feliks.

"We—we all agreed that it would be better if we lived in separate places."

"Yeah, and—!" Feliks wants him to continue. Toris does so.

"We don't want to live with you in the future either because you—you!"

Toris is yelling. Why is Toris yelling at him? Why is Feliks so happy about this?

"You Ivan Braginsky are an abusive man child and we all don't want to even hang with you anymore because—because all you do is push us around!"

"…Man child?" Ivan is silent. Dead silent. This is beyond his belief. The Russian freezes up like the heat in the room was replaced with snow.

He's never acted like that...abusive? Since when?

Ivan doesn't know what to do with such confidence from his usually calm and collected friend.

"What do you mean by that...?" Ivan looks like a kicked puppy.

Anyone else but Toris. Anyone else he could understand, but not Toris. Toris and him are best friends! Right! Right?

"We all want you to leave, Mister Ivan Braginsky! You make our lives a living hell! And frankly I'm surprised I haven't died from stress because of you!"

Toris gets so heated he stands up and starts yelling at Ivan, pointing his index finger straight into his face.

Ivan has to adjust his eyes to look at Toris through his own tears forming.

The Russian can feel every little pain of the words coming out of his mouth into the atmosphere of the room.

"Have you ever thought for a second what kind of crushing anxiety we live under all the time! You're hurting us more than you've promised to help us!"

"Now that's more like it! You tell him!" Feliks is encouraging his lover from the sidelines, looking more confident and less upset than when he barged into the room.

"You mean, none of you, not even you like me anymore…?" Ivan's purple eyes blinked twice, gathering up genuine, big beads of wet tears.

"Well, duh." Feliks says in a rude manner, ignoring Ivan's visible pain. "You always push and pull us around. We're all sick of your dictatorship and honestly, having this apartment and the extra cash is so not worth our sanity, like, for real."

"What about Eduard and Raivis? They want to stay!" Ivan whips his head around to their collective direction, desperate for something. Eduard and Raivis stare at the ground. They cannot muster up words anymore. There's no need because Ivan already knows. They feel the same as Toris does. They want him to leave.

"They voted for the motion to veto you, you have zero votes to keep you. So, we're like, voting you off the island." Feliks explains. "Now get your stuff out of our apartment and find another group of people to torture."

"I don't have anywhere else to go! This isn't fair!" Ivan starts to cry beads of tears flowing down his soft, round face. The man is crushed that he's lost his favorite people in the world. The fact that Toris was the one to say anything makes it sting.

"We've always been together Toris! Always! Remember?"

"You still have your sisters." Toris says still working off his hot anger, "I'm sure they'd be happy to live with you again. Especially Natalia."

"Yeah, like at least you've got family in this damn country. All my family are still in Poland. It's, like, unfair." Feliks comments. "Count your blessings once and awhile."

"They are crazy and total nut-cases! They—Back me up here Toris! Toris! Talk to me!" Ivan is still sobbing, trying to still hold the emotions inside.

Toris stands up for himself and doesn't mention a word back to him. In fact, his strong silence tells Ivan everything he needs to know. Toris doesn't even want to be friends anymore. Toris wants to be with Feliks and his friends from the old country.

Ivan is now alone.

The Russian finally gets a grip and wipes away most of his tears with his thick, woolen sleeve.

"I guess that's it then, isn't it?"

Feliks and Toris nod. Ivan's still smiling through it all. Stomping down his anger, betrayal and painful loneliness with a grin.

"I'll get my things out of your way. Thank you for your honesty, everyone." Ivan says, rather drained of any emotion.

The now torn apart Russian picks up his knitting basket and proceeds to leave the living room, passing Feliks and Toris on the way, looking back at them for the last time. Because, this time Ivan knows he means it for once in his life.

"See! I told you it would work just fine. We should totally celebrate!" Feliks says, rather happy for seeing a man get destroyed in front of him.

"I—I didn't know I could do that…" Toris says, feeling a sting of regret for every single word he has yelled at Ivan. Yet, the words needed to be said eventually.

Raivis is stunned into silence.

"Impressive…" Eduard muses, fixes his rectangular glasses in awe over the situation. "I never thought..."

* * *

"What the hell do you mean you are getting kicked out by that bitchy cross-dresser, that doormat, the total nerd and that scared little chihuahua!" Natalia screeches into the small smart-phone. Her voice is a mixture of stunned horror and fiery anger.

"Those bastards owe you everything for dragging their collective asses out of the Soviet Union alive!" Ivan's little sister is beyond peeved. She's pissed off. "No one makes a mockery of my brother and lives!"

"He...He doesn't like me." Ivan says in a monotone to his peeved sister.

"I mean seriously? You get those whiny little bitches out of the hell we endured together as children and this is how they repay you! I should have killed Toris when I had the chance. After all, I bet that evil man was the perpetrator, wasn't he?"

"Little sister—Toris, he—He was—" Ivan tries to explain the situation through his new beads of tears, but he couldn't form sentences. Ivan simply started to whine and cry into the phone like a child loosing their favorite doll.

"I knew it was him! I knew it!" Natalia hisses into the phone, "He shall feel my eternal wrath forever for hurting my big brother! Eternal! Wrath!"

Ivan can feel the radiating disapproval of Toris and his other Slavic friends leak into the room. She might not be staring down at them now, but she would be if they were face to face. She might down right kill them all at this point, with a knife straight to the heart.

"Calm down Natalia! We're suppose to be cheering little Vanya up, remember?" Katyusha mutters to her in the background, trying to pry the phone away from her aggressive little sister.

"You know, you could slip those bastards some antifreeze in their beverages and they'd never know…" Natalia suggests.

"Natalia!" Katyusha scolds. "We're not going to murder his roommates!"

"Who said I'd involve you? This is a solo mission of revenge." Natalia says rather determined.

"Anyways," Katyusha continues, ignoring her little sisters threats of outright committing a felony murder, or rather murders.

"Shh, shh. It's okay Vanya—You know you can always move back in with us in the old neighborhood." Katyusha calms Ivan's cries with a gentle, motherly kind of voice.

"I know you don't like it there, we don't either but—but at least you'd have us. And we love you always and we would support your career and everything."

"But—But I don't want to move back!" Ivan whines more, tears flowing down his face. "I wanna be with my friends! Not you two!"

"I know you kind of are embarrassed by us, but please give us another chance!" Katyusha starts crying a bit from the sounds of whimpers on the phone. "Please? Please my little Vanya?"

"I—I guess so..." Ivan frowns a little. He does not like this idea, he hates the idea of having to deal with his sisters again face to face.

Home. That apartment is not their home. It's more like their new, rundown home. That shitty, dirty apartment complex that his sisters only live in because it's filled with other Russian immigrants and the rent is dirt cheap.

Natalia's made herself quite famous around the apartment building scaring the shit out of robbers in various, almost hilarious ways. Not to mention she committed a felony and got caught stabbing a man in the leg for hitting on her in an alleyway. No one messes with Natalia Arlovskaya around there.

"...How are things? Did that man above you stop giving you two trouble?" Ivan asks his little sis. Natalia snickers a bit before telling her brother the story.

"Oh yes, yes! That man. He had a massive heart-attack. Poor son of a bitch, couldn't even rob our apartment right." Natalia kinda makes conversation with her older brother.

"It's true." Katyusha adds, He left most of our valuables in tact, not to mention our grandfather's war metals."

"I bet the motherfucker cannot handle kvass let alone ninety proof Vodka." Natalia smack-talks. "What a dumb-ass of a human being."

"What about the landlord, has he done anything for you?"

"Yeah, here and there." Natalia says rather annoyed with the person in question.

"I buy him a pack of smokes and he gets the job done faster."

"Natalia!" Katyusha scolds her sister. "You shouldn't bribe people!"

"What? The drain got fixed did it not!" Natalia yells back to her eldest sister. "Don't fuck around with my methods, big tits!"

"Anyways, don't worry about your transportation. I got a car recently. I can pick you up in an hour."

"Did—did you seriously steal a car Natalia?" Ivan asks, honestly concerned about his little sister ending up in the slammer.

"Ha Ha! No. That would have been better though!"

"No, I bought it from a shady ass kinda guy on this website I found." His little sister says.

"That's not safe." Ivan says matter of fact.

"I know. I like to feel alive once and awhile and legally obtain cars."

Ivan and his little sister chuckling a bit from her last comment on the telephone.

"You know what I really want to steal?"

"What?" Ivan asks, "Something really pretty?"

"A Lada! Perfect Russian engineering in car form. That car would last forever!"

Sure, even though they are utter crackerjacks. The pair of sisters are like a comedy routine gone wrong, but they are still Ivan's siblings. Maybe it is a good thing he is returning home and helping out his sisters. Not that they need, need his help. But, it would be nice to have some good Russian food again. Ivan can only replicate his older sister's soup recipe so far in his culinary career. Don't get him started on her amazing blini!

"I'll see you soon, big brother." She says, and for once Ivan can hear her smile. "Love you."

"…I love you too little sister. Tell Katyusha the same, alright?"

"Okay." Is the last thing his little sister utters before she hangs up her side of the smart phone.

For some reason, she sounded normal. Totally out of character for her, Ivan's a little stunned. She acted like a normal sibling was talking to him.

Yes, Ivan admits he would be lost in this world of his without their support and unconditional love. The Russian wonders though, would they still love him if they found out he was…different? Would they even talk to him anymore if they found out the only reason he left home was to be romantically involved with a friend during college? Oh what would they think?

Ivan and his sister have been raised as Eastern Orthodox by Ivan's grandfather. Hell, even Katyusha still goes to the church and hopes to have a Daughter-In-Law! His little sister wants to see him happily married too. As kids the girl insisted that he should marry her instead. To this day, she is jealous of any girl in Ivan's area.

Though he is now surrounded by his sister's love and affections a hard fact remains. Ivan is all alone now. Alone in the world.

That is Russian's most fear inducing thought.

Ivan starts by unzipping a suitcase and starts packing up all of his possessions one by one, as if preparing for the worst. He starts with his clothing and moves on to random trinkets he's acquired over the years of living is such a spacious place. He might have to leave most of them, as now they are nothing but reminders of what never took place. Friendships that never happened. A relationship that never blossomed...

There's a picture of him and Toris posting for a picture at the old University. Ivan knocked off the picture once because it was too close to the edge of his nightstand.

No matter how much he loved Toris, Toris never loved him back. No matter how much time they spent together as children, teens or adults, Ivan could never force anyone to fall in love with him. Not a single soul.

Ivan drops the photograph, hearing the glass shatter into cold, harsh pieces on top of the carpeting. It is not fair. It's just not fair.


	2. Welcome Home

Ivan thinks that his little sister Natalia is a good sister. Maybe. Sometimes. Ivan does not really know other than she offered to pick him up tonight. Somewhere beyond that rough, coarse, gritty and harsh exterior of a personality is a genuine, good sister. A feminine sister who does not try to stab everything that moves. Big sister always has said that Natalia has her own, painfully unique way of expressing her emotions in a way that intimidates and scares the living hell out of anyone. Ivan himself can even become frightened of his sister just from her words. In her defense, she is a extreme beauty. All those boys in school wanted her. So, she told them to go kill themselves.

Ivan is brought back into reality by the blinding headlights of a vehicle. A rather rough looking, beat up and duck taped together kind of car drives up next to him. Ivan can hear the tires come to a screeching halt once the driver slams on the brakes. A window rolls down from the passenger's side of the vehicle. Russian music with intense base is blaring from the car's built in stereo system.

A young woman with long platinum blonde hair is inside. Her striking deep blue eyes stares at Ivan up and down from inside her odd car. The young woman is wearing a familiar white headband with a cream ribbon bow on the top. She is in a rather antiquated dress, having long, puffed out long heavy-looking cotton navy dress has starched white cuffs that reveal the young woman's dainty hands, griping the steering wheel like a vice.

After a moment of observing Ivan, the woman laughs like a weirdo, smiling ear to ear in a rather unsettling fashion while her blue eyes open much wider than they should be.

"Big brother! So glad to see you have returned to our side." She announces with glee, griping the wheel even tighter. Her giggles comes across as mad laughter. "I knew were are destined to cross paths again. My tarot told me so last night! A union of godly proportions is occurring!"

"Right, right, right…" Ivan waves off his sister's erratic behavior. Ivan picks up some suitcases from the sidewalk next to his old apartment's entrance.

"Can you pop the trunk for me?" Ivan says, pointing to the back of the car. He doesn't have time to deal with her strange behaviors right now, he just wants to get out of this cold night air.

Natalia pouts when her brother doesn't respond to her in fear or shock. "What's wrong with you? You love it when I do the crazy eyes! At least when we were kids."  
Ivan can see his breath in the frigid air of this blistering night. "Please Natalia! I'm cold out here!" Ivan buried his round face into his push scarf as his cheeks started getting pink from the cold.

Ivan's little sister mutters some choice words and pulls a lever in the vehicle for the truck. It only pops open half-way. Ivan trots over to the back of the car, dragging his suitcases around. He forces the trunk further open and shoves his two bags of luggage into this jalopy of a car. Inside the trunk already is a shovel. It's will wet with mud. It's suspicious to say the least amount of words possible. Ivan's too tired to care what person Natalia's murdered and buried this time. Ivan closes the trunk with a long, drawn out sigh.

"Come inside! Come and see how amazing this car is!" His little sister yells back to him, Russian accent heavy in her voice. "Those bastards, can't even let my big brother wait inside for his own freaking car ride! What the hell is wrong with them..."

Ivan hears the familiar click of the doors unlocking in his little sister's vehicle. The Russian walks over to the passenger's side. Staring at him the whole time, Natalia starts humming the national anthem of Russia while her brother ducks his head down to sits inside the awful little car.

Inside the old, freezing car was a combination of all sorts of odd, Natalia things. Hanging from the broken up rear view mirror is a deep brown prayer rope. A gift from big sister to keep her safe in her travels. God knows with her terrible driving and how much she flips people off while doing so, she needs all the help she can get. Several old straw wrappers clutter the floor. Some tissues covered in tears, and other random garbage scatter the floor. The whole car smells like dust and dirt mixed together with bad quality booze. In the on ground is a half-filled vodka bottle and some empty kvass bottles. Not to mention she's playing the music so loud it could burst Ivan's ear drums. When Ivan closes the door with a harsh slam, as he assumes it's the only way it will stay shut, Natalia peels out of the apartment's entrance without letting her brother buckle up.

Natalia notices Ivan's rather empty stare and liquid on his face. She suddenly stops at a red light and scares her brother to near death.

"Natalia! Are you trying to kill us!" Ivan complains.

"Look I know your friends are cowards, morons and geeks but—!"

"They're not even my friends." Ivan interrupts, without emotion in voice.

"Right, right. Not after what they've done to you." Natalia mutters quietly as she continues to drive when the light hits green.

"Should have broken all of Toris's bones when we were dating in high school…"

"Didn't you break his entire hand? And his leg?"

"Yeah." Natalia says, smiling back rather fond of the event. "It was fucking amazing seeing all his tiny bones pop out of socket." She wiggles her non-dominate hand to emphasize the subject. Then, when another light turned green she put her hand back on the steering wheel to grip it.

"But, think about it, big brother, at least it wasn't like a breakup or anything. Now those! Those are terrible." His little sister tries to cheer him up. "Big sister has gone through god knows how many. People want her for her huge tidies only."

"Yeah, at least we weren't romantically involved! At all!" Ivan laughs along with his little sister, lying straight to her face. Toris and Ivan did break up. At least, from Ivan's perspective.

"Don't worry so much! There's some Vodka in the back seat somewhere. We'll get you some good booze and nice food and you'll heal up in no time flat." She snaps with her right hand. "Vodka and duck tape solve every problem I've encountered in America."

"Why duck tape? For the car's bumper?" Ivan remarks on her cars shitty condition.

"To cover the screams, duh." She says, as if this is common knowledge "How else can I persuade people without torture?"

"Thanks for that nightmares, Little sister." Ivan says, rather concerned.

Natalia starts laughing hard, almost choking on her own spit. Which does not help at all with the conversation at hand. The long ride home has begun. Ivan already wants to hitchhike rather than ride with his serial killer of a sister. Who keeps a dirty shovel in the back of a car anyways? Then again, his sister is into the occult, did she dig up a body!

Oh, there better be some vodka and blini after this dangerous car ride!

"Jesus Christ little sister! Doesn't this thing have heat?" Ivan starts shivering in his seat shortly after the drive starts.

"Nope. Heat died last winter. Big sister and I don't have the money to fix it yet."

"What is big sister doing working nights anyways? I thought she was a morning person like us?"

"...She's gets massive tips at night. Yeah. That's right." Natalia's laugh gives away her own lie. "She gets tips alright."

"Little sister. Are you lying to me? Me of all people?"

"Okay. Prepare yourself. I know it's dumb, but hear me out, it makes more money that that dumb job at the cafe down the street."

"What exactly is she doing that is so bad?"

Natalia's silent for a long time. "She's now something the Americans call an 'exotic dancer' or some dumb shit like that. Listen. Brother."

"She's a stripper." Natalia admits, with a twinge of sadness in her voice.

"What do you mean my innocent, sweet, motherly older sister is a stripper!" Ivan yells at the top of his lungs in horror.

"Natalia answer me!"

"She _has_ to okay! Ever since you left us out in the cold for your dumb friends she's been stripping to make ends meet! There! Are you happy now? Are you happy that you've abandoned your only family for your dumb Lithuanian! Huh! Did you think we'd just be fine _without_ you!"

Natalia runs a red she's so upset with her elder brother she's not paying attention to the road. Ivan, fearing for their collective lives, shuts up for three fourths of the ride to the older neighborhood. Ivan works up the nerve to apologize for making her so upset while she's driving.

Siblings should get along.

"I—I didn't know. I didn't think it through. I'm so sorry."

"You can say sorry once we're all eating blini and drinking our pains away. Together. Okay?"

"Just forget about those dorks and enjoy some quality time with your sisters." Natalia says, driving into a rather odd series of streets. "We're almost there."

* * *

"Welcome back to the old neighborhood!" Natalia announces as she parks the car in their designated spot by the landlord. By designated spot, Ivan means halfway down the street next to some old woman's broken down house. Ivan once knew the lady, as she would always talk to big sister about little sister terrorizing people who came by.

"They haven't torn down this place yet?" Ivan is kind of happy the yellow house is still here. It reminds him of sunflowers. Fields and fields of them, all together in a pretty shade of golden yellow.

"I know. Lucky us, huh?" She smiles. "More parking for us superior Russian immigrants!"

"Right…"

Natalia clicks the lock button of the door and Ivan does the same motion on his side. He doesn't want his little sister to get her car stolen in this…rather unique neighborhood filled with tons of crime. Ivan and Natalia walk side by side on the cracked up sidewalk. The old neighborhood contained litter of all sorts. Most notable were piles of trash, some crack pipes, and empty baggies of some sort of powder. Probably cocaine.

"Do you still carry pepper spray, Natalia?"

"No, I carry a weapon now." Ivan stops in his tracks on the sidewalk. Does she have a gun now? Please, God, don't let this woman have a pistol!

"Let me guess, it's a gun?" Ivan hopes he's incorrect.

Natalia burrows into her dress side pocket. She flips out and twirls around an odd looking little knife into its useful position with ease. It's decorated with some Russian flag stickers with some scratch marks from twirling it around the wrong way.

"It's a butterfly knife, it's my new favorite method for getting weird men out of my face. Pretty cool huh?"

"Wow, that looks expensive! How did you get it?" Ivan questions how his sister got something so dangerous with her police record. Second, he knows the pair don't have that much money, let alone enough to get something so expensive looking and sharp.

"I stole if from a bitch in college. Then I covered her name up with these cute flag stickers, see!"

Oh. Of course she stole something from someone else. Ivan is not surprised at his sister criminal actions. She does have a record of breaking and entering, assault and stalking charges, but most were dropped. Most.

When the pair made it two the apartment complex, it's nothing shocking or new to Ivan. If the car was terrible, it only cemented the idea that Ivan's been living with a silver spoon in his mouth this whole time while his sisters have been just scraping by in the so called land of opportunity.

There's Iron bars on the windows, even on the third floor apartments. Boarded up windows or outright broken windows, from the neighborhood kids throwing stones. Various brands of cigarette buts on the ground litter the front of the apartment. The door paint was cracking and the front lawn snow covering the foliage. Beer cans littered around a lawn chair outside of the complex. That's where they often found their "landlord" of sorts. He was the only guy in the building that actually fixed things. The reddish-brown bricks worn down with time decorate the outside. Natalia puts all her body weight into the door to open it up. The woman gets dirt on her palms for touching the brass door nob.

Inside is not better, if anything it looks worse. It's cold, as the main window to the complex is stuck half open since the eighties. The roof leaks through a hole that's visible in the off-white ceiling. Ants are crawling around on the only red carpet from around the seventies. There's only two choices once you enter the building. Up some creaky, tiny ass stairs to the upper floors. Or downwards to the damp and dark basement and landlord's actual room. Big sister lives on the third floor, only door to the right. Odd, Ivan still remembers this place from the smell of smoke and dust down the unwashed carpet. It's nothing like the apartment they had in Russia, but in a way this is the home Ivan has, so he must work with it. For now.

"Number six, on the right. Remember all the fun we had when we first moved here?" Natalia reminisces a bit.

"We had the best high school parties here! There was drinking, kissing, dancing and tons of teenagers having awkward sex. I think I guy smoked weed and ate an entire tub of ice cream inside our kitchen one time."

"Oh, I remember him! Good times. Man, we were wild children!"

"We still are, big brother! Come on up, we should get a baseball bat and start knocking out some mailboxes like in the movies!" Natalia suggests, eager.

As the pair climbed the stairs with happy memories of wild parties and destruction of property, Ivan started to miss the luxury of having an elevator in an apartment complex. Or an apartment that didn't look trashy. Or dingy. Or you know, without the broken shards of crack pipes outside the front entrance.

"Well, well. Look who's back." Ivan turns to the sound of another person behind the sibling pair.

Ivan looked down the stairs to see another tenant of the building. Natalia grits her teeth staring daggers at him. This person is no good to them. Ivan stares him down wondering who this person is and why they are here right now.

"Leave us alone you piece of garbage." She makes a repulsive sharp hiss like a viper. "My brother is back and he will kick your teeth in for trying to look up my dress again, you pervert."

"What, you think this fat motherfucker here can bash my teeth in? I'd like to see him try." The man says, stomping out a cigarette into the carpet.  
Oh, after the hell Ivan's been through, he's been waiting for this moment. Revenge.

"Natalia, Go upstairs. I'll deal with this…capitalist roach, okay?"

Natalia nods, knowing exactly what's about to happen and goes up the squeaky, creaky stairs to get a baseball bat like they discussed.

Ivan walks down the tiny starts as fast as he can. The tall Russian looks down at the pervert, smiles, and then sucker-punches the fellow right in the middle of his face. Ivan knocks the man down on to the carpet of the entryway. Ivan then starts the process of wrapping his hands around his throat in a vice grip, forcing his foot into his stomach at the same time. The man's hands come up to his throat as he gurgles and struggles to stop Ivan's grip.

"You know, you remind me of another cocky American I don't like. Trust me when I say you should not lay a hand on my sisters or I will see to it that you'll never live again…do you hear me sir? Hm?"

Ivan only hears the sound of his larynx crushing down under his gloved palms. He digs his heel deeper into the man's abdomen. "It's not nice when girls and boys cannot play well together, don't you agree? It's much better when we play well together."

Ivan hears gurgling from the man drowning on his own spit. "Sorry, my Russian immigrant ears cannot understand your silly accent!"

Ivan releases his hands only to hear a sharp gasp. The cockroach spit on to the floor, eyes wide open as if he about met his maker. "Now get out of my sight. Before I crush you like the bug you are." Ivan smiles with malicious intent. "Is that clear?"

The man gathers up air in his lungs, and gets back on his feet only to run out of the apartment building, kneeling over in pain. He's scared not only of the harsh stare of Ivan, but of the fact he briefly saw a giddy Natalia give her brother a metal baseball bat with several dents in it.

"Oh man, you left him alive? Lame." Natalia remarks, spiting out some gum on to the apartment building's crimson flooring.

"Some of us don't like having extensive assault charges on their police record, Natalia."

"Oh whatever. Now, about those mailboxes down the block…" Natalia smiles like a demon.

Ivan doesn't miss being alone anymore. For once, maybe he's had too much social interaction for the week.


End file.
